Bishop

On September 10, 2006, Brent was called to serve as Bishop of the Little Spokane River Ward in our stake.  At the time, his call was unexpected and overwhelming in so many ways.  Well, here we are now over 5 1/2 years later, and this past Sunday he was released from his position as Bishop of the Colbert Ward.   Two years ago our stake boundaries were realigned and the former ward was dissolved and we had the opportunity of helping create a new ward.  It was a great experience. 

Sunday was a tender, teary and bittersweet day to say the least.  There were lots of kind words and sentiments shared.  He truly and deeply LOVED his calling.  He just loves people, especially the youth, and as a bishop had the opportunity to personally connect with so many.  Of course there were hard and difficult times, plenty of challenges that he helped members through.  However, the good times, the opportunities to mentor youth, to guide, direct and serve young and old far outweighed those challenges. 

Currently he is in "decompression" mode!  It will take a few weeks for his mind and his heart to "let go" of the responsibilities that he had.  The stake has great plans for him in the future that include still working with the youth and he is excited about that.  As "Sister Bishop" I too enjoyed serving with him.  It was a great blessing in our family for which I will be forever grateful.  Following are a few pictures of some of these experiences.  We will humbly cherish the memories of this time and will always love our fellow ward members. 

The picture on the left is Brent with some of the Young Women.  The YW LOVE Bishop McLaws.
 Our Stake President says he reminds him of a "a happy puppy!"  Not a bad description!
 The picture on the right is at YW Girl's Camp in 2010.
 We camped as a ward that year and he stayed with us the whole time.

Left picture is of a 50 Mile High Adventure Camp with the Priests at Eagle's Cap, Oregon.
 Right is a Youth Activity where they had their own Pinewood Derby.

One of my favorite things about being Bishop was the opportunity to get to know the missionaries serving in our area.  The left picture is of 2 sister missionaries who served in our ward.
 We even had 2 elders who lived in our home for about 6 weeks while waiting for a permanent place. 
The picture on the right is of the Pioneer Trek we went on in 2010.  I spent my 50th birthday as a pioneer--it was awesome!